John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk

John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Arms of Sir John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, KG
Biographical data Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Nottingham, Baron Mowbray, Baron Segrave Reign 19 October 1432 – 6 November 1461 Predecessor John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk Successor John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk Born (1415-09-12)12 September 1415 Epworth, Kingdom of England Died (1461-11-06)6 November 1461 (aged 46) Burial Thetford Priory Spouse Eleanor Bourgchier Issue John de Mowbray, 4th Duke House House of Mowbray Father John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke Mother Lady Katherine Neville

John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk KG Earl Marshal (12 September 1415 – 6 November 1461) was a fifteenth-century English magnate who, despite having a relatively short political career, played a significant role in the early years of the Wars of the Roses.

Born in 1415, Mowbray was the only son and heir of John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and Katherine Neville. He inherited his titles upon the his father's death in 1432. As he was still a minor, Mowbray became a ward of King Henry VI. The King placed him under the protection of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, whom Mowbray would later campaign alongside in France. His behaviour as a young man appears to have been controversial. Although exactly what he did remains unknown, it was severe enough for the King to place strictures upon him and separate him from his followers. His early career was spent with the military, where he held the wartime office of Earl Marshal. Mowbray command the defence of England's possessions in Normandy during the ongoing Hundred Years' War. In 1437 – 1438 he served a year's term as warden of the east march on the Anglo-Scottish border, and in 1438 he again led a force to Calais.

Mowbray's marriage to Eleanor Bourgchier in the early 1430s involved him in the highly partisan and complex politics of East Anglia. He became a bitter rival of another local lord, William de la Pole, Earl (later Duke) of Suffolk. Mowbray prosecuted his feuds with vigour, often taking the law into his own hands—and often breaking it. This drew the ire of the Crown. He was bound over for massive sums and imprisoned twice in the Tower of London. Such tactics were also employed by his enemies, particularly by de la Pole. The local gentry looked to Mowbray for protection against the duke and to further their own attacks on him, but often Mowbray was was incapable of providing the good lordship asked of him. De la Pole was both a powerful local force and a favourite of the King and had his ear; Mowbray was neither.

As law and order crumbled in eastern England, national politics became increasingly factional, and there were popular revolts against the King's unpopular councillors. Richard, Duke of York, who by the 1450s was feeling excluded from government, became increasingly belligerent. York rebelled twice, and both times, Mowbray defended King Henry. Eventually, though, Mowbray drifted politically towards York (with whom he had shared an enmity of de la Pole). For much of the decade, Mowbray was able to evade direct involvement in the increasingly fractious political climate, he aligned with York in early 1460. After York's death later that year, Mowbray helped put York's son on the throne as Edward IV. Mowbray was instrumental in helping Edward win the Battle of Towton by his late arrival with reinforcements in April 1461. Mowbray was almost immediately rewarded by the new regime, but did not live to enjoy his rewards. He died in November 1461, and was succeeded as Duke of Norfolk by his only son, John.

Background and youth

John Mowbray was the only son of John de Mowbray, 2nd Duke of Norfolk (1392 – 1432) and his wife Katherine Neville (1400 – 1484). His mother was a daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, a powerful magnate in northern England. The younger Mowbray was born on 12 September 1415 while his father was absent in France campaigning with Henry V. Mowbray was only seventeen at his father's death and still legally a minor. During his minority, his estates were granted by Henry VI to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester for a farm of 2000 marks (approximately £1,667). Mowbray's wardship, and the right to arrange his marriage, was sold to Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford for £2,000. By March 1434, Anne had arranged for Mowbray's marriage to her daughter Eleanor Bourgchier.

For the good rewle and governaunce of my lord of Northfolk beyng in the Kynges ward, it semeth expedient that he as wele as tho that shall be a boute hys person kepe and observe as hit towcheth hem severally the rewle comprised in tharticles undir wryton...

(I.e., For the benefit of the Duke of Norfolk as the King's ward, it is expedient that he and those with him obey the rules written below as far as he and his followers are affected by them)

The National Archives, Chancery Masters' Exhibits, C 115/K2/6682 fo. 251, Ordinances for John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, c. 1435..

As a young adult, Mowbray appears to have been raucous and troublemaking, and surrounded himself with equally unruly followers. This seems to have drawn the King’s attention: Mowbray had only recently—with the other lords—swore an oath in parliament not to recruit or welcome villains and wrong-doers into his affinity, nor to maintain them. He was summoned before the King and his council. Mowbray was instructed in how to conduct himself henceforth, and a precise regimen was imposed upon him. Exactly which aspects of Mowbray's behaviour were viewed as were problematic is unknown, but since it resulted in what one historian described "unprecedented" council-imposed personal restrictions being placed upon him, his conduct must have been deemed "abnormal". These ordinances not only dictated the time he should go to bed at night and rise in the morning, but even addressed his demeanour. His  disorderly followers were dismissed, and replaced with those deemed suitable by Henry VI. Their stated role was to turn Mowbray towards "good reule and good governaunce," and they were not just to guide Mowbray but also report any disobedience of the council's instructions back to that body.

Inheritance, early career and royal service

Inheritance

On his father's death in 1432, Mowbray inherited the office of Earl Marshal, but not the rest of his inheritance. Mowbray's father, in fact, had never been able to completely control his own estates, as they were encumbered by two Mowbray dowagers, Mowbray's mother Katherine, and his sister-in-law, Constance Holland. They each held a third of the inheritance as their dower. Constance died in 1437, but his mother survived until 1483. Because of this, the historian Rowena Archer—who made one of the few full-length studies of the Mowbray family—described Mowbray as inheriting a "hopeless" and "onerous" legacy. It also had political consequences for the future. As he never personally held much property in the counties where his inheritance was (only holding, for example, seven of the twenty-six manors held by the Mowbrays in Norfolk and Suffolk), his influence was thus restricted there.

Claim to the earldom of Arundel

Mowbray's 1433 petition to parliament over the lordship of Arundel and the right to the earldom of Arundel.

Immediately following his father’s death, Mowbray claimed the earldom of Arundel. This set him against John, Lord Maltravers, who also claimed it. This was an old dispute. Mowbray's father and grandfather had also claimed the earldom, which had blocked Maltravers' father's claim. Mowbray based his claim through his grandmother Elizabeth Fitzalan, Duchess of Norfolk; Maltravers through his great-grandfather Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel. In July 1433 Mowbray personally presented a petition to Parliament (receiving special permission to attend as a minor). Mowbray—"in a rather remarkable decision," says Archer—lost the case. Maltravers, though, died in May 1435 and so was never summoned to parliament under his new title.

In August 1436 Mowbray accompanied the Duke of Gloucester on a military campaign to relieve Calais, which was under siege by the Duke of Burgundy. The expedition was a success, and Burgundy was forced to withdraw. On 13 September the same year, back in England, he received livery of his inheritance, and immediately began a busy period devoted to royal service. In 1437, possibly due to Gloucester's patronage Mowbray was appointed Warden of the Eastern March for a one-year term of office. Mowbray clearly had had little experience of the north of England, but was paid wartime wages of £5,000 to prosecute the campaign against the Scots. 1438 saw Mowbray return to Calais and Guînes, leading an expedition to strengthen their defences; Burgundy still presented a threat. Although Mowbray soon returned to England, in June 1439 he was again back in Calais, at Oye, escorting Archbishop John Kemp’s diplomatic mission to the peace conference. Possibly Mowbray disapproved of royal foreign policy (which by then was aimed at making peace with the French rather than waging war), as this was to be  his last expedition.

The 1436 Siege of Calais, as later illustrated in the Vigiles du roi Charles VII

For much of the 1430s, Mowbray had problems in East Anglia, where the bulk of his estates now lay. William de la Pole had become increasingly powerful, both at court and in the region, and was Mowbray’s biggest rival. Mowbray had enough political clout in the 1330s to control parliamentary representation in Suffolk but the increasing local importance of the duke weakened his grasp. Mowbray clashed with de la Pole, and committed many illegalities doing so. These included damaging property of rivals, assaults, false allegations of outlawry (with confiscation of goods), and even murder.

By 1440, de la Pole had become a royal favourite. Mowbray was imprisoned, at de la Pole's instigation, on at least two occasions, in 1440 and in 1448. The first occasion saw him bound over for the then-massive amount of £10,000, and confined him to living within the royal Household, preventing him from returning to seek revenge in East Anglia. Likewise, apart from an appointment to commissions of oyer and terminer in Norwich in 1443 (after the suppression of Gladman's Insurrection), he received no other significant offices or patronage from the crown. A recent biographer of Mowbray's, the historian Colin Richmond, has described this as Mowbray's "eclipse". Richmond has also suggested that soon after his last bout of imprisonment, in 1449, Mowbray journeyed on a pilgrimage to Rome; a licence for him to do so had been granted three years earlier.

Crime and disorder in East Anglia

Mowbray's predecessors had been largely Midlands magnates based around Lincolnshire estates. Even his father—after he became duke of Norfolk and received his mother's East Anglian dower lands—was often an absentee lord. Mowbray’s father was thus unable to ever establish a sizeable (or "particularly coherent") regional following there, and this was the situation Mowbray inherited.

Every magnate required a powerbase, and Mowbray had to build one for himself. East Anglia was forced upon him, as his estates there were all that let him to do so: much of his inheritance in Lincolnshire was held by his mother as dower. Mowbray was very much a newcomer to political society in the region, and had to share influence with others. By the time of Mowbray’s majority, de la Pole —with his links to central government and the King—was an established power in the region. He hindered Mowbray's attempts at regional domination for over a decade, and the feud between the two lasted from the moment Mowbray became Duke of Norfolk to the murder of de la Pole in 1350. Their feud was often violent, and encouraged their retainers to fight. In 1435, some Mowbray retainers (led by Robert Wingfield, Mowbray's steward of Framlingham Castle) murdered one of de la Pole 's (James Andrew); when local aldermen attempted to arrest them Wingfield's party rained arrow fire. Mowbray secured royal pardons for those responsible.

De la Pole fought back violently, with what one contemporary labelled "greet hevyng an shoving." He was successful in doing so. Within a couple of years, Mowbray could not protect his retainers as he had previously done. A Paston letter tells how Robert Wingfield, who was involved in a bitter dispute with one Robert Lyston, "procured and exited the wurthi prince the Duke of Norffolk to putte oute ageyn the seid Robert Lyston" from the latter's Suffolk manors. Lyston, though, with de la Pole's support, repeatedly sued Wingfield in court until in 1441 Wingfield was imprisoned in the Tower of London. In 1440, Mowbray was able to influence the Exchequer to quash Wingfield’s fines; but Mowbray’s success was fleeting. Mowbray was more successful in his support of John Fastolf—in one of the latter's many lawsuits 1441, and was able to impose an advantageous settlement (for Fastolf) in Chancery. Generally, though, says Helen Castor, Mowbray's influence "proved woefully inadequate" to protect and defend his retainers and tenants to the degree they could reasonably expect from their lord. It was his supporters' misfortune, one historian has said, that "Norfolk's power never matched the status attributed to him".

Mowbray’s situation did improvement over the following decade. Between 1440 and 1441 he was imprisoned in the Tower following a dispute with John Heydon, who was close to de la Pole. Mowbray was bound over on 2 July 1440 for the "enormous" sum of 10,000 marks also having to reside in the King’s household, swearing no further  harm to Heydon.

In 1443 Mowbray and Wingfield fell out over Hoo manor. Wingfield had received Hoo from the second duke, but the third duke wanted it returned to his possession. Mowbray reacted violently. Robin Storey tells how:

He brought a force of men, with cannon and other siege engines, battered Wingfield's house at Letheringham, forced an entry, ransacked the building and removed valuables amounting to nearly £5,000, according to his victim's evaluation.

— R. L. Storey,

Framlingham Castle, still in a remarkable state of preservation in 2008, was Mowbray's East Anglian headquarters, and from where he directed many of the attacks on his numerous regional rivals and opponents.

Wingfield had by then joined with de la Pole, and in turn offered a bounty of 500 marks for the head of a Mowbray retainer. In November 1443 Mowbray was bound over for £2,000 to keep the peace with Wingfield and instructed to appear before the royal council the following April. The council ordered them to seek arbitration. This found against Mowbray, who had to pay Wingfield 3,500 marks as compensation for the damage the duke caused to Letheringham. He was also had to recompense Wingfield for Hoo before he could get it back. It was presumably as part of these proceedings that Mowbray suffered his second bout of imprisonment in the Tower, which commenced on 28 August 1444; he was released six days later.

In June 1446 one of his father’s retainers, Henry Howard, was murdered in Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk. He was probably visiting his sister-in-law (and Mowbray's aunt), Margaret Mowbray, at the time, as her house was only 5 miles (8.0 km) away. Howard’s killers appear to have been retainers of John, Baron Scrope of Masham; and it is not impossible that Scrope actively aided and abetted them in the killing.  On 18 June 1446 Mowbray oversaw the presentment of an Ipswich jury to examine the killing, but Mowbray's case soon stalled. Scrope had petitioned King Henry that Mowbray's proceedings were "inaccurate and inherently malicious," who ordered the cessation of proceedings against Scrope's men At least five of the thirteen jurors were Mowbray retainers. This may have been the only occasion on which Mowbray personally sat on a local King’s Bench commission as the hearing J.P.

The arbitration between Mowbray and Wingfield did not resolve their feud, and in 1447 Wingfield returned to the attack. Along with another ex-Mowbray retainer, William Brandon, he assaulted, robbed and threatened Mowbray's staff. on 6 December 1447, Wingfield threatened Mowbray's chaplain. Mowbray—as Justice of the Peace for Suffolk—ordered Wingfield to keep the King's peace; this was ignored. Wingfield was then committed to Melton gaol. Three hours later Brandon broke Wingfield out of prison. Mowbray applied to Chancery for, and received, letters patent ordering Brandon and Wingfield to not come within 7 miles (11 km) of Mowbray. This order too was ignored, and they dwelt at Letheringham (only about five miles from Mowbray's castle at Framlingham), and started breaking into Mowbray's retainers' houses in the area. Mowbray requested a commission of oyer and terminer be organised to investigate Wingfield and Brandon; this was issued in late December 1447.

By the early 1450s Mowbray believed that he alone held East Anglia, and described himself as the "princypall rewle and governance throw all this schir," a Paston letter reports. The Earl of Oxford, an enemy of de la Pole, was desirous of Mowbray's "good Lordship", and in 1451 they collaborated in Suffolk investigating participation in Jack Cade's Rebellion. The region continued to experience disorder: Mowbray's own men were responsible for much of it. This included the destruction of properties belonging to Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk. The Duke himself fell from power in 1450. In the years following, says Richmond, Mowbray's affinity committed “one outrage after another [and] the duke was either unable to control them, or chose not to do so". Mowbray used devious means to defeat his opponents, including having them charged with outlawry in another county without them knowing, and then claiming their goods as being forfeited to himself.

...after the dethe of Henri Howard the sessions of pees were at Gippeswiche the Saturday next after Trinity Sunday last passed there being oure right trusty and right welbeloved cousin the Duc of Norff... at the wyche tyme the said Duc as it is said seing that he might not doo endite the said lord Scrop nor noone of his maynee for the dethe of the said Howard...

The National Archives, KB 145/6/25.

Mowbray also forced the gaoler of Bury St Edmunds to release a man charged with murder into Mowbray's custody. According to the gaoler's later report, he had done so, but only out of "fear and terror" of the Duke of Norfolk. Mowbray spent much of the early 1450s hunting down de la Pole's affinity; R. L. Storey described Mowbray's "methods of argument" as exceptional.

The removal of de la Pole had not increased Mowbray’s power in East Anglia. He still had rivals in the region with wealth and court connections. John de Vere, the Earl of Oxford in particular now wished to extend his landholdings from Essex into Suffolk, and Lord Scales had been granted the remnants of de la Pole's affinity by Queen Margaret. It was precisely this lack of political connections (specifically, his exclusion from the King's council) that defeated him against de la Pole. Mowbray was also unsuccessful at influencing local commissions and nominating parliamentary candidates in shire elections. In any case, the county of Norfolk already possessed a strong and relatively independent layer of wealthy gentry; for example, the Pastons, the Howards, and those around John Fastolf. They were equally eager to augment their positions at the expense of a neighbour, even if that neighbour was a lord.

Later career and political crisis

The 1450s saw English politics become increasingly partisan and factional, with a rise in violence and local disorder. Jack Cade's rebellion in 1450—directly aimed at royal favourites like de la Pole—had explicitly named Mowbray as one of the King's "natural counsellors" necessary to reform the realm. Even so, Mowbray was part of a major royal army which eventually defeated the rebels.

The King was urged "to take about his noble person his true blood of his royal realm, that is to say, the high and mighty prince the Duke of York, exiled from our sovereign lord's person by the noising of the false traitor the Duke of Suffolk and his affinity. Also to take about him his person the mighty prince the Duke of Exeter, the Duke of Buckingham, the Duke of Norfolk ... and he shall be the richest Christian king."

John Stowe's Historical Memoranda on Cade's rebellion.

During the next crisis—the near-rebellion of Richard of York in Autumn 1450—Mowbray took York's side against the new royal favourite, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. York canvassed Mowbray for support against Somerset, as Mowbray was one of the few nobles willing to outrightly criticise the court. For York, this was a logical alliance, as Mowbray was an "implacable enemy" of Somerset and as opposed to him as York was. Mowbray gathered his forces at Ipswich on 8 November (where John Paston was ordered to meet him "with as many clenly people as ye may get"), and may have travelled into London with York, who had also recruited locally. Thus, when he arrived for the parliament it was with a large, heavily armed force. Mowbray was appointed, with the Duke of York and Earl of Devon, to maintain law and order in the City of London for the duration. However, Mowbray's advisers seem to have caused as much trouble as they prevented: on 1 December, Mowbray's men joined with York's to attack Somerset's house in Blackfriars. Such was the violence that Somerset was lodged in the Tower of London in for his own protection. Two days later the King and his magnates rode through London with up to 10,000 men. Mowbray personally rode ahead with a force of 3,000. This show of force was designed to quell any remnants of support for Cade's rebels, who by now had been mostly defeated and rounded up.

Certayn notable knyghtis and squyers of this countee theer to have comonyngs with your good Lordshep (the earl of Oxford) for the sad rule and governaunce of this counte, (Norfolk) wych standyth ryght indisposed.

– August 1450, and Mowbray summons his men to parley with him and the Earl of Oxford at Framlingham.

Mowbray's alliance with York was intermittent. The latter rebelled again in 1452, confronting a royal army at Dartford; Mowbray was with the King. For his service he later received £200 and a gold cup. Their alliance could have also been abandoned by York, perhaps embarrassed by Mowbray's violent behaviour in East Anglia. York was, after all, presenting himself as the candidate of law and order. Mowbray's campaign against Somerset, meanwhile, continued unabated. In 1453, with the King now incapacitated and York protector, Mowbray personally presented charges against Somerset in parliament, attacking his failure to prevent the loss of English territory in France ("the loss of two so noble Duchies as Normandy and Guyenne"). As a result, Somerset's was imprisoned in the Tower for the next year. In April 1454, Mowbray was asked to join the York's regency council. Mowbray swore goodwill to York's government, but claimed to be too ill to attend.

In early 1455 the King recovered his health, the protectorate came to an end, and Somerset was swiftly released from the Tower. As a result, suggests Ralph Griffiths, Mowbray may have (and "quite rightly," he says) feared for his own safety, with Somerset now free.

The Wars of the Roses

Main article: Wars of the Roses

The Tower of London; both Mowbray and his archenemy Suffolk were imprisoned here at different stages of their careers.

Following the collapse of the 1454 – 1455 protectorate, the Yorkist lords retreated to their estates, and Mowbray distanced himself from factional politics. Civil war erupted in May 1455, when York and his allies ambushed the King at the first Battle of St Albans. Mowbray managed to avoid involvement in the fighting, even though, as Earl Marshal, his heralds were used during negotiations between the two camps. Mowbray either arrived after the skirmish or was in the area while the battle took place. Mowbray was present after the battle, when he threatened to hang the Royal Standard bearer at St Albans, Sir Philip Wentworth, at the news that Wentworth "cast it down and fled" (as one of William Worcester's correspondents informed him). Mowbray may have missed the battle, but by now, contemporaries viewed him as being generally sympathetic to York. It is more likely that Mowbray was—probably deliberately—vacillating. He did not attend York's victory parliament in 1455, and may have gone on more pilgrimages: including a walk to Walsingham in 1456. It is also possible that he ventured further over the following two years, possibly to Amiens, Rome or Jerusalem.

After four years' uneasy peace, civil war again broke out between September and October 1459 when the Yorkist Earl of Salisbury fought off a royal ambush at the Battle of Blore Heath, but was then, along with York and their supporters driven into exile by the King's army. Mowbray took neither side, but with the Yorkists exiled, when a parliament was called for Coventry, Mowbray attended. Here the Yorkists were attainted, and on 11 December 1459 Mowbray took an oath of loyalty to keep Henry VI on the throne. He was received a number of royal commissions in the final months of Lancastrian rule.

Yet at some point between the Yorkists' return from exile in June 1460 and early December, Mowbray threw in his lot with them, as when York, Salisbury and Rutland left for the north on 9 December, Norfolk remained in London with Salisbury's and York's sons, the Earls of Warwick and March. York and Salisbury's journey north ended in disaster. Choosing to engage a Lancastrian army outside the duke's castle at Sandal, the Yorkists were crushed at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December. York, Salisbury and Rutland died in or soon after the battle.

The precise cause of Mowbray's change of loyalties remains unknown. Colin Richmond argues that the Lancastrian defeat at Northampton in June 1460 was fundamental, and Mowbray lost friends and colleagues. It is also possible that King Henry's capture there encouraged him to desert the King. Christine Carpenter, on the other hand, puts it down almost solely to Mowbray's failure to improve his position in Norfolk under Henry. Mowbray brought King Henry with them when he and Warwick left London to confront the approaching Lancastrian army headed by the Queen. Encountering the Queen's army at the Second Battle of St Albans, the Yorkists were defeated. Abandoning the King to his wife and supporters, they swiftly retreated to London before the victorious Lancastrians could reach the city.

Battle of Towton

Main article: Battle of Towton

Battle of Towton - Engagement

The Lancastrian army marched on London, but the city refused it entry. On 3 March 1461 Mowbray attended a great council at Baynard's Castle organised small group of Yorkist loyalists, and agreed to offer Edward, Earl of March the throne. The following day—indicating the urgency for resolution felt by the Yorkists by this stage— Mowbray was despatched into East Anglia to raise his country "with all diligence to prepare for the war on the party of King Edward". The Lancastrian army had returned to the north where, on 29 March 1461 York and Lancaster met at the Battle of Towton. It was to be one of the longest and bloodiest battles fought on British soil, and "fought in bitter Yorkshire weather and no less bitter spirit", says Charles Ross. On Mowbray's advice, says Ross, Edward followed the Lancastrian army north with a new army.

Mowbray seems to have recruited successfully in the region, as one of the Paston letters says that "every town hath waged and sent forth." Mowbray left East Anglia via Cambridge on 17 March 1461, where John Howard and his own force of men joined Mowbray's; Howard also brought with him a gift of money from Bury St Edmunds Abbey. The force that Mowbray was raising may have constituted the Yorkist rearguard and so not part of the main Yorkist army, intending to join with it later. He was still not with Warwick's and March's council of war held at Doncaster in late March. There are different explanations for Mowbray's delay. Possibly he faced difficulty in mustering troops; the army recently raised to fight at St Albans had been dispersed. This would require re-mustering. Also possible is the fact that—since he died only a few months later—Mowbray may have been too ill to have kept up with the main Yorkist force. At Pontefract Mowbray transferred command of his army to Sir John Howard, his cousin and retainer, knowing that time was of the essence for the Yorkists and that yet, whilst he was with them, his soldiers could only march as quickly as he could travel. If Mowbray was ill, then it is unlikely that he fought personally; Boardman observed that "a sick man would never have survived such a strength-sapping ordeal, especially a noble in armour-plate." If his contingent was also tasked with bringing up Yorkist artillery, this would have further slowed them down—they may have abandoned armory en route in order to increase their speed.

Mowbray arrived late to the battle but at a crucial point. His prolonged absence after a day's bitter fighting must have been a growing worry for the Yorkists, especially as they may have thought him up to a day's march away. Mowbray's absence presented an acute problem for the Yorkist army; Philip A. Haigh describes them, by four o'clock in the afternoon, as doomed without him. There must have been much messaging between Edward and Mowbray tthroughout the day, but battle fatigue had almost certainly set in on both sides by the time Mowbray's troops arrived on the eastern edge of the

So did The White Lion [Mowbray] full worthily he wrought, Almighty Jesus bless his soul, that their armies taught. Blessed be the time, that Godever spread that flower!

The Rose of Rouen, c. 1461

battlefield. A contemporary chronicler described the situation thus

And about four o'clock at night [i.e., 4  am] the two battles joined and fought all night till on the morrow in the afternoon. About noon the aforesaid John, Duke of Norfolk, with a fresh band of good men of war came to the aid of the newly elected King Edward...

— The Hearne fragment, Thomas Hearne's Thomae Sprotti Chronica

Mowbray's army launched a decisive attack on the Lancastrian flank, turning them left. He brought, after all, a force something in the region of 5,000 men. His arrival had the effect of both reinvigorating the Yorkist army and crushing Lancastrian morale with his surprise attack and led rapidly to a Lancastrian rout which eventually gave the victory to Edward IV.

Under the Yorkists

The ruins of Thetford Priory, Norfolk, in 2006, where John Mowbray was buried.

Earls Marshal played an important role in coronations. Like his predecessors, Mowbray officiated at the coronation of Edward IV at Westminster Abbey Edward's on 28 June 1461. Within two months he had received a number of lucrative offices. Public order was a problem for the new King from the beginning of his reign, and East Anglia was no exception. Mobs rampaged during that year's parliamentary elections.. Norfolk may in fact have been encouraging this; he is certainly a candidate for ordering the murder of the country coroner, one Thomas Denys that August.

Even though Mowbray was a confirmed supporter of the new Yorkist regime, he still met with strong opposition from the East Anglian gentry in the first year of the reign. This was despite (theoretically, at least) having the support of the King in government, and backed though he was by John Howard in the shires. Howard was by now one of Mowbray's senior retainers —described as Mowbray's "right well-beloved cousin and servant"— and Sheriff of Norfolk.

Death

Mowbray did not live long enough to benefit from the Yorkist victory. On 2 November 1461, Howard was arrested by the new Yorkist regime. Mowbray died four days later on 6 November 1461, aged 45, and was buried at Thetford Priory. He was succeeded by his only son, John. His mother, Katherine Duchess of Norfolk, survived him and lived until 1484. She had already taken two more husbands during Mowbray's own lifetime, and took another after his death.

Marriage and issue

Mowbray married Eleanor Bourgchier, the daughter of William Bourgchier, Count of Eu and Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Buckingham. Eleanor was the sister of his successor as Justice in Eyre, Henry Bourgchier. They appear to have shared a close bond: while travelling in May 1451, Mowbray supposedly dispensed with his retinue to enjoy, according to Colin Richmond, "a private tryst" with his wife. The couple had one child, also John, who in 1448 married Elizabeth, daughter of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. The son was seventeen when his father died in 1461, and inherited the estate four years later.

Character and legacy

Ralph Griffiths has suggested that when Archbishop John Kemp died in 1453, it may have at least in part been due to the bullying and threats he had recently been subjected too: "notably by Norfolk himself". One modern historian has placed much of Suffolk's success in the region, which antagonised Mowbray so much, as being down to Mowbray's own "crass incompetence" in being "ineffectual" at assisting those members of the political community who would expect to rely on a lord of his stature's protection. J. R. Lander called Mowbray "a disreputable thug", while Richmond concludes that Mowbray was "cavalier with the rights of others to a safe life and a secure livelihood". Fundamentally, says Richmond, whilst "many medieval aristocrats were irresponsible men ... Mowbray's individuality lay in the thoroughness of his irresponsibility." On a more positive note, says Michael Hicks, the quality of honour was clearly very important to Mowbray, as his pursuit of Somerset (for that duke's abject performance in France) shows. Likewise, as Earl Marshal, he must have possessed a good understanding of chivalry and its application, as it was fundamental to the office.

Cultural depictions

John Mowbray is a minor figure in the play King Henry VI, Part 3 by William Shakespeare. He appears in act I, scene i, and act II, scene ii as a supporter of the Duke of York; the first time just after the Battle of St Albans, and is portrayed "conspicuously associated with opposition." This is ahistorical, as Mowbray was still loyal to King Henry at this point. His second appearance in the play is at the Battle of Towton.

A scholar of Shakespeare's plays, W. W. Greg, has suggested that John Mowbray is the Duke of Norfolk of The Merry Devil of Edmonton, of whom the comic character Blague, the Innkeeper, repeatedly says "I serve the good Duke of Norfolk."

See also

• Dukes of Norfolk family tree

References

Bibliography

• Archer, R. E. (1984a). "Rich Old Ladies: The Problem of Late Medieval Dowagers". In Pollard, A. J. (ed.). Property and Politics: Essays in Later Medieval English History. Gloucester: Alan Sutton. pp. 15–35. ISBN 0862991633. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Archer, R. E. (1984b). The Mowbrays: Earls of Nottingham and Dukes of Norfolk to 1432 (D,Phil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 638691892. {{cite thesis}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Archer, R. E. (1995). "Parliamentary Restoration: John Mowbray and the Dukedom of Norfolk in 1425". In Archer, R. E.; Walker, S. (eds.). Rulers and Ruled in Late Medieval England: Essays Presented to Gerald Harriss. London: Hambledon Press. pp. 99–116. ISBN 978-1-85285-133-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Archer, R. E. (2004a). "Neville, Katherine, duchess of Norfolk (c.1400–1483)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Archer, R. E. (2004b). "Chaucer [married names Phelip, Montagu, de la Pole], Alice, duchess of Suffolk(c. 1404–1475)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-54434 (inactive 2018-01-04). Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2018 (link)
• Archer, R. E. (2004c). "Mowbray, John, second duke of Norfolk (1392–1432), magnate". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-19453 (inactive 2018-03-04). Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of March 2018 (link)
• Beadle, R. (2002). "Fifteenth-century Political Verses From the Holkham Archives". Medium Ævum. 71: 101–121. OCLC 67118740. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Boardman, A. W. (1996). The Battle of Towton (repr. ed.). Gloucester: Alan Sutton. ISBN 978-0-75091-245-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Boardman, A. W. (1998). The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses. Stroud: Sutton. ISBN 978-0-75091-465-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Breverton, T. (2014). Jasper Tudor: Dynasty Maker. Stroud: Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-44563-402-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bromley, J. M. (2011). Intimacy and Sexuality in the Age of Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-13950-532-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Burley, P.; Elliott, M.; Watson, H. (2007). The Battles of St Albans. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-47381-903-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Carpenter, C. (1997). The Wars of the Roses: Politics and the Constitution in England, c.1437-1509. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521318742. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Castor, H. (2000). The King, the Crown, and the Duchy of Lancaster: Public Authority and Private Power, 1399–1461. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198206224. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Castor, H. (2004). Blood and Roses: The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century. Chatham: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571216706. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Crawford, A. (2010). Yorkist Lord: John Howard, Duke of Norfolk c.1425–1485. London: Continuum. ISBN 978-1-44115-201-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Davis, J. (2011). Medieval Market Morality: Life, Law and Ethics in the English Marketplace, 1200–1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-13950-281-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dobson, M.; Wells, S. (2001). The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19811-735-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dyas, D. (2001). Pilgrimage in Medieval English Literature, 700-1500. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85991-623-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fiehler, R. (1949). "I Serve the Good Duke of Norfolk". Modern Language Quarterly. 10: 364–366. OCLC 924728310. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fiorato, V.; Boylston, A.; Knüsel, C. (2007). Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461 (2nd paperback ed.). Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-84217-289-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Giles, J. A., ed. (1845). The Chronicles of the White Rose of York: A Series of Historical Fragments, Proclamations, Letters, and Other Contemporary Documents Relating to the Reign of King Edward the Fourth. London: James Bohn. OCLC 319939404. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gillingham, J. (1990). The Wars of the Roses (2nd ed.). London: Weidenfield and Nicholson. ISBN 978-1-84885-875-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Given-Wilson, C.; Brand, P.; Phillips, S.; Ormrod, M.; Martin, G.; Curry, A.; Horrox, R., eds. (2005a). "'Introduction: Henry VI: July 1433'". British History Online. Parliament Rolls of Medieval England. Woodbridge. Archived from the original on 17 February 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Given-Wilson, C.; Brand, P.; Phillips, S.; Ormrod, M.; Martin, G.; Curry, A.; Horrox, R., eds. (2005b). "'Henry VI: November 1459'". British History Online. Parliament Rolls of Medieval England. Woodbridge. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018. Retrieved 18 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Given-Wilson, C.; Brand, P.; Phillips, S.; Ormrod, M.; Martin, G.; Curry, A.; Horrox, R., eds. (2005c). "'Henry VI: October 1435'". British History Online. Parliament Rolls of Medieval England. Woodbridge. Archived from the original on 23 February 2018. Retrieved 23 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Goodman, A. (1996). The Wars of the Roses (2nd ed.). New York: Barnes and Noble. ISBN 0-88029-484-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Goodwin, G. (2011). Fatal Colours: Towton, 1461 - England's Most Brutal Battle. London: Orion. ISBN 978-0-29786-072-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Griffiths, R. A. (1981). The Reign of Henry VI. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520043723. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Grummitt, D. (2013). A Short History of the Wars of the Roses. Short histories. London: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84885-875-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gunn, S. J. (1988). Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, c.1484-1545. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-63115-781-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Haigh, P. A. (2001). From Wakefield to Towton: The Wars of the Roses. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-0-85052-825-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Harriss, G. L. (2005). Shaping the Nation: England 1360-1461. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199211191. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hicks, M. A. (1998). Warwick the Kingmaker. Oxford: Longman Group. ISBN 978-0-63123-593-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hicks, M. A. (2012). The Wars of the Roses. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300181579. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hicks, M. A. (2013). Bastard Feudalism (2nd ed.). Harlow: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-31789-896-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Jacob, E. F. (1993). The Fifteenth Century, 1399-1485. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192852868. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kaufman, A. L. (2004). "To Write: Sir Thomas Malory and his Cautionary Narrative of Legitimation". Enarratio. 11: 61–88. OCLC 984788270. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kenny, G. (2003). "The Power of Dower: The Importance of Dower in the Lives of Medieval Women in Ireland". In Meek, C.; Lawless, C. (eds.). Studies on Medieval and Early Modern Women: Pawns Or Players?. Dublin: Four Courts. pp. 59–74. ISBN 978-1-85182-775-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lander, J. R. (1980). Government and Community: England, 1450–1509. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674357930. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Maddern, P. C. (1992). Violence and Social Order: East Anglia, 1422-1442. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19820-235-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Morrison, S. S. (2000). Women Pilgrims in Late Medieval England. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-13473-763-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Myers, A. R. (1996). Douglas, D. C. (ed.). Late Medieval: 1327 - 1485. English Historical Documents. Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41560-467-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Orme, N. (1984). "The Education of Edward V". Historical Research. 57: 119–130. OCLC 300188139. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Orme, N. (2003). Medieval Children (2nd ed.). London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30009-754-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Peach, H. (2004). Curious Tales of Old North Yorkshire. Wilmslow: Sigma Leisure. ISBN 978-1-85058-793-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pollard, A. J. (1990). North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses: Lay Society, War, and Politics 1450-1500. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19820-087-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pollard, A. J. (2011). "The People and Parliament in Fifteenth-Century England". In Kleineke, H. (ed.). The Fifteenth Century X: Parliament, Personalities and Power. Papers Presented to Linda S. Clark. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. pp. 1–16. ISBN 978-1-84383-692-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pugh, T. B. (1988). Henry V and the Southampton Plot of 1415. Gloucester: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-86299-549-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Quennell, P.; Johnson, H. (2002). Who's who in Shakespeare. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41526-035-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Richmond, C. (2004). "Mowbray, John (VI), third duke of Norfolk (1415–1461)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)
• Richmond, C. (2005). "East Anglian Politics and Society in the Fifteenth Century: Reflections, 1956–2003". In Harper-Bill, C. (ed.). Medieval East Anglia. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press. pp. 183–208. ISBN 1-84383-151-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ridgard, J. (1985). Medieval Framlingham: Select Documents 1270–1524. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85115-432-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rose, J. A. (2006). "Litigation and Political Conflict in Fifteenth-Century East Anglia: Conspiracy and Attaint Actions and Sir John Fastolf". Journal of Legal History. 27: 53–80. OCLC 709978800. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ross, C. D. (1974). Edward IV. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-52002-781-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ross, J. A. (2011). "'Mischieviously Slewen": John, Lord Scrope, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, and the Murder of Henry Howard in 1446". In Kleineke, H. (ed.). The Fifteenth Century X: Parliament, Personalities and Power. Papers Presented to Linda S. Clark. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. pp. 75–96. ISBN 978-1-84383-692-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Saccio, P. (2000). Shakespeare's English Kings: History, Chronicle, and Drama (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19802-871-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Scofield, C. L. (1923). The Life and Reign of Edward the Fourth, King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland. Vol. I (1st ed.). London: Longmans, Green. & Co. OCLC 1011868853. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Shakespeare and History (2018). "John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk". Shakespeare and History. Archived from the original on 23 February 2018. Retrieved 23 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Shakespeare, W. (2001). Cox, J. D.; Rasmussen, E. (eds.). King Henry VI Part 3 (3rd ed.). London: Arden Shakespeare. ISBN 1-903436-303. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Smith, A. (1984). "Litigation and Politics: Sir John Fastolf's Defence of his English Property". In Pollard, A. J. (ed.). Property and Politics: Essays in Later Medieval English History. Gloucester: Alan Sutton. pp. 35–58. ISBN 0862991633. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Squibb, G. D. (1959). The High Court of Chivalry: A Study of the Civil Law in England. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OCLC 504278136. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stansfield, M. M. N. (1987). The Holland family, Dukes of Exeter, Earls of Kent and Huntingdon, 1352–1475 (D.Phil thesis). University of Oxford. {{cite thesis}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stansfield, M. M. N. (2004). "Holland, Edmund, seventh earl of Kent (1383–1408)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-13518 (inactive 2018-03-04). Archived from the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |subscription= ignored (|url-access= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of March 2018 (link)
• Stopford, J. (1999). Pilgrimage Explored. Wodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-95297-343-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Storey, R.L. (1999). The End of the House of Lancaster (2nd revised ed.). Stroud: Sutton Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-0-75092-199-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vaughan, R. (2014). Philip the Good: The Apogee of Burgundy. The History of Valois Burgundy (New ed.). Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 0851159176. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Virgoe, R. (1980). "The murder of James Andrew: Suffolk faction in the 1430s". Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute ofArchaeology and History. 34: 263–268. OCLC 679927444. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Virgoe, R. (1997). "Three Suffolk Parliamentary Elections of the mid-Fifteenth Century". East Anglian Society and the Political Community of Late Medieval England. Norwich: University of East Anglia. pp. 53–64. ISBN 0906219442. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ward, M. (2016). The Livery Collar in Late Medieval England and Wales: Politics, Identity and Affinity. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-78327-115-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Watts, J. (2004). "Richard of York, third duke of York (1411–1460)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-23503 (inactive 2018-01-04). Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2018 (link)
• Webb, D. (2001). Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in the Medieval West. London: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-86064-649-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)